My Imperfect Sadu Singh Oberoi

Chapter 3

Shanaya was thinking of a reason to wake Abella up today as she walked up to her room and was astounded upon finding Abella awake and all dressed up for their first day of internship. Shanaya began to rub her eyes with her fingers as she though she might be hallucinating the sight in front of her eyes. Abella, being oblivious of Shanaya’s presence as she was still getting her hair set by the time Shanaya entered, took her perfume and puffed it on the sides of her neck. As the perfume smell hits Shanaya’s nostrils and triggered her allergic reaction, only then did Shanaya realized that she wasn’t hallucinating.

“Did the Sun rise from the west today? How come you're awake and ready so early?” Shanaya asked, still in disbelief.

“What do you think? We’ve got our internship in Ahaana Authentics! Do you really think I would be able to sleep properly? My sleep is totally ruined. You know what? I woke up even before the alarm rang. I’m in such a Bobsy-die. You know right, if I don't manage to graduate and get a job here then Papa would get me back there and get me married to someone who is not at all like my Mr.Perfect. And my whole life's wait will be for nothing. I remained single till today and I also...” blabbered Abella continuously without even taking a breathing break which annoyed Shanaya.

“Abby! Patience! Shhh! Calm down ad breath!” Shanaya exasperated, being unable to listen to her bestfriend’s banter any longer.

“For God’s sake, just calm down, alright?” Shanaya squeezed Abella in her hug and rubbed her back to cool her nerves.

“Listen, I know how much this whole thing means to you. Don't worry too much about it and just trust in God. He'll make everything right, okay? Now, can I get a good view of your messily aligned teeth?”

Abella couldn’t help but to smile as she heard that and reciprocated Shanaya's hug. After a brief breakfast of butter toast and a cup of masala tea or masala chai, as how they call it the Indian way, Abella and Shanaya moved out to catch a rickshaw-auto to their first ever work place.

*

Pranav knocked before entering Siddhant's cabin only to find him busy with some work.

“Pranav, I’m busy right now. Don’t disturb me, I’ll entertain you later”

“Siddhant, I heard that this time around all the interns are female and also that they are joining today. Is that what that is keeping you busy?” Pranav asked his elder brother with a hint of mischief in his tone upon receiving that rude comment from him.

“Fhat the wuck? Pranav why on Earth would I be busy because of some mere interns joining in? Are you out of your mind? Ms. Chanda had already worked on it. And yeah, please don’t mingle closely with the interns!” Siddhant replied dubiously. Pranav is indefinitely a huge flirt, he can never be trusted whenever he’s around females, according to Siddhant. Little did Siddhant knew that Pranav was just being himself, the friendly boy next-door.

“Siddhant, I was just kidding! And yeah, the interns are only going to be here for no longer than a week. None of the previous ones had properly finished their internship with us. If I’m not mistaken, there were only two or three of them who were able to complete their three months long internship in the past five years right?” Pranav wondered as he tapped his index finger on the corner of his chin, pretending to be in deep thoughts.

'Three of them and they're working with us now. Ahaana Authentics isn't just another brand, it is quality, perfection and elegance. If the interns are able to live up to it, then of course they can sustain here. But unfortunately, there are too many out there who didn't live up to the standard that we had set. So they either quit or get fired. It’s just that youngsters these days take everything for granted and don’t work their ass of for something that they want and we don't need such employees!” Siddhant calmly explained to Pranav as if he had versed that reply a thousand times.

“Alright! I get it, grandpa! Incompetent youngsters!” Pranav shrugged his shoulder as Siddhant passed him an angry glare upon the snide comment. “Keep that aside for now, and tell me if there will be any interns in my team?', Pranav asked again.

Siddhant looked up from the e-mail he was working on and found Pranav making a puppy-face with fluttering eyelids. He handed over a red file which was on the table behind, groaning at how annoyingly cute and frustrating his brother could be at the same time.

“Even I haven't had the time to take a look at it” Siddhant informed Pranav. Pranav, on the other hand, was not at all bothered to listen to Siddhant at that moment. He had immeadiately opened the file and poured all his attention for the information that was looking for. Despite feeling pissed at how Pranav’s attention was not even a tad bit on him, Siddhant ignored him and focused back on his work. He was beginning indulge himself in the work when Pranav's voice distracted him, yet again. Whoever said younger siblings are often bullied by the elder ones, people, you got it all the wrong way!

“This is amazing! There’s a pretty intern taking that sleazy Devlin’s place in my team!” Pranav exclaimed being completely oblivious that he was annoying someone else in the room.

“Oh no! What’s this? Ho on Earth did this happen?” Drama-king Pranav now made his entry, successfully gaining Siddhant’s full attention. Siddhant lifted his left eyebrows, glaring coldly at Pranav.

“This better be something worth the drama you’re putting up”

“There’s an intern under you!” Pranav replied almost immediately, without letting Siddhant to complete what he was about to tell.

“Wait! What? There’s an intern under me?!” Siddhant swiftly snatched the file from Pranav and went through it.

“Yeah! That's what I found there!” Pranav shrugged as he quickly got up to leave Siddhant's cabin.

Siddhant looked at the new name under his team, Abella Morgan D’Souza. He flipped to look up at her profile and found a passport sized photo of Abella on it. He was taken aback when he saw her beauty. The perfect little smile carved on her lips added just the right sparkle to make his heart skip a beat. A sense of familiarity hit him, but he couldn’t identify her.

Meanwhile, Abella and Shanaya had just reached Ahaana Authentics and were in time when Ms. Chanda called all the interns there for briefing and team placements. Abella noticed her undone shoe laces as they were about to walk into the meeting hall and signalled Shanaya to go first and. Shanaya and the other interns went ahead, right behind Ms. Chanda.

Abella who had just tied her shoelaces got up in a rush and took quick strides with all her focus being on the door where her bestfriend and her college-mates just disappeared when she ran into something hard. As she fell back due to the impact of the clash, she saw that the something hard was a man, not just any man, but a drop-dead gorgeous man who seemed nothing less than a Greek God. The impact caused the file in Siddhant’s hand to be thrown up, causing the papers to fall out, however his entire attention was on the girl who ran into him. She was about to fall back and hit the floor when Siddhant quickly grapped her hand and pulled her towards him. Abella too grasped on the collar of his blazer as she found herself losing in his deep blue-green eye and without her realizing, she uttered a word that could put her whoe life in jeopardy.

“Prince Charming!”